| rev:text
| - NOTE: There seem to be quite a few reviews on here for the Hansa Import House, the little ethnic store next door to the brewery/restaurant, so just to be clear, this review is for the latter. Now, let's do this thing.
Yeah, I've got a bit of a thing for certain ethnic comfort food and craft beer. It's in my DNA, so there's no denying it. Anyway, Hansa Brewery, it's almost like it was designed for me, and with a fantastic brewer like Corey Miller at the helm (we did a short stint together at a local homebrew supply shop), how could it possibly go wrong? Well, for the most part, it wasn't the beer that was the issue...
Finally, after what seemed like 20 years, Hansa Brewery was born. Late September 2016 to be more precise. At the time of this review, they still didn't have their patio completed yet, but I'm hopeful that this will be done sometime before 2020.
We stopped in around 5:30ish on a Thursday. Pretty quite and empty. The space is well-lit and open with a beautiful wood-slab bar to the left of the host station, large flatscreens overhead and a few tables. The main dining room with its polished wood floor and is toward the rear with an awesome view of the brewery's stainless steel tanks. German decor abounds, festive murals on the walls. There's just a nice, warm feeling to the place that I really liked.
When we walked in we saw the "Please Wait to be Seated Sign" so that's what we did. The bartender acknowledged us, but we still stood there for a noticeably long time before finally being shown to a table by a hostess.
First, the highlight - the beer. All of the beer is brewed on site and I've gotta say, Corey has outdone himself here. They have 12 total taps, 9 of which are house beers and a flight is only $5. All have a decidedly German spin with a few oddballs like a black IPA and a blackberry porter on nitro thrown in to keep things interesting. They've got weissbier, doppelbock, schwarzbier, and even an IPA brewed with all German hops. For me, the standout was the kettle-soured Lichtenhainer. It was light, gently tart, biscuity, incredibly well-balanced and delicious. If I was rating the brewery only, we're talking 5 stars here. But I'm not, so let's continue.
The menu, as you're probably guessing by now, is basically German food. We're talking schnitzel, sausages, spaetzle, and the like. All things I will eat in volume if given the chance. We decided to start with the German pretzels (of course), spinach salad and charcuterie plate. For my entree I opted for the sausage platter while my wife was content to nibble from all of the aforementioned goodies. Here's where things derailed just a bit.
Why are you serving average pub fries with a German wurst platter? C'mon, man. I shouldn't have to tell you that it's spaetzel and/or potato salad with sauerkraut. Make the fries optional, not the other way around. Next, the pair of soft pretzels were soft, warm and delicious but the tiny cup of beer cheese was way undersized. Our server happily brought us another upon asking - no charge. The spinach salad was, well, a spinach salad - a bed spinach, a sprinkling of red onion, tiny pieces of bacon and some croutons with a sliced hard boiled egg. It did its job like it should.
The charcuterie was pretty good, too. A decent selection of meats and cheeses - two types of salami and some kind of cured ham along with a few gherkins. The cheeses included some kind of soft, washed rind number and a firm, orange-ish one. Looking back on it, I probably should have asked what I was eating, but it was good, I had beer and I didn't care all that much to find out. I thought the crostini they served as the vehicles were a bit uninspired. BTW, wanna know how a charcuterie is done? Head across the street to Great Lakes Brew Pub. Another brights spot has to be the trio of sausages on the sausage platter. They were all delicious. Flavorful, loaded with spices, a perfect natural casing snap to each bite. As far as tubed meats go, they were pretty damn tasty.
The service was good for the most part, just a bit slow. Our server was running her ass off basically taking care of five tables on her own, so I get it. Boris, the owner, eventually stepped in to help out, but during most of our visit the pace was pretty slow. Our server also neglected to explain the items on the charcuterie plate and didn't bring my spaetzel as requested with my entree. She was very friendly and knowledgeable about the beer and even offered to bring me a sample of the sour ale, just in case I was uninitiated in the style.
OK. Others have already mentioned it. Hansa Brewery was just born and they're still a bit wobbly on their baby legs. I get it. They'll need some time to get the details right and settle into a routine. Hell, I'm a forgiving guy, I'm not gonna slap 'em with a two-star review or anything, but the number of basic "Restaurant 101" missteps were just too numerous to overlook. I'll revisit and reassess.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)